❤~Staff Thread~❤

1. Feedback/suggestion - (Next Newsletter)
As Sel had planned to do before being abducted by aliens, I would like to host a feedback/suggestions thread.

Purpose:
- It would allow us to get a better idea of what members want from us/think of our future events
- increase interaction with our members
- allow some members to share ideas that we haven’t previously thought of.

Additional Details:
- The feedback/survey would not decide what we do, but would give us a better understanding of what our members want. Ultimately, it will be the relevant staff deciding how things would be run, though they may consider what has been mentioned.
- Rather than making a blank feedback form, I plan to provide some proposed details on future events and have members provide opinions between them. Of course, there will still be a suggestion section in the end for members to propose ideas that haven’t been considered before.
- Will be done in a thread format to allow discussion and allow the suggestion thread to benefit from bumps/bandwagon effect. There will also be an optional google survey attached for individuals who seek privacy for whatever reason.
- A new feedback/survey thread will be started each season providing updated points that we seek feedback on.

*I am able to host this if it is deemed a good idea; may have to hand-over management of the thread next year though.

2. New badges/‘Badge shop’ - (Before the next set of seasonal events.)
Another proposal I have would be to make a few special badges for those who take part in certain seasonal events such as the PRC and perhaps the seasonal review event (SRE). The badge designs could be featured in a 'shop thread' with certain requirements stipulated in order to redeem them.

Purpose:
- This may serve as an incentive to boost participation in seasonal events
- Serves as a reward for those who are already a part of them
- Incentive to keep participating
- May serve as an advertisement for the events in the case that members feature the badges on their profile or forum sig.

Additional Details:
- For events such as PRC and SRE, members who participate in consecutive/multiple of such events would have the number of times they seasons they participated in reflected. (e.g. in the form of 'stamps')
- Badges may be upgraded the more times a member participates. (E.g. (1 x stamp = Anime Guild Season Reviewer; 3 x stamps = Anime Guild Senior Reviewer; 5 x stamps = Anime Guild Master Reviewer)
- I understand this would be quite a bit of work art-wise and I wouldn't mind joining the art department tentatively to see this project through if others feel this is a good idea.

*I am able to host this for the next few months if it is deemed a good idea. I may need someone to take over from there as I get more busy IRL though.

3. Anime Trivia Challenge 2016. - (Some time in mid Nov.)
I plan to host this again if there is no objection, but currently I’m trying to deal with the fact that the website I used last year isn’t really free anymore (only 25 responses will be recorded). That said, I do have some extra template quizzes from before the change that may still accept unlimited responses. Hopefully that works out, otherwise I’m going to have to go hunting for another hosting website.

Purpose:
- Same as last year's

Additional Details:
- If things work out though, I plan to host the event in mid Nov. to allow the finals to start earlier since I realised quite a lot of people are away during the holiday period. That said, I’m not too sure how this would line up with the newsletter.
- I’ll be putting up the beta-qualifying round once I settle a few things. (should it be open to public/restricted to staff?)

Qualifying Round
- The format should be mostly the same unless I’m unable to continue using the current hosting site, but there are a few slightly changes I would probably make.
-> Free-response questions: 15 questions -> 10 questions; New section: Association(2 pts x 10 qns); cut down the timings for some sections slightly; make it more difficult to search up questions online; lower the general difficulty of the quiz
-> Instructions for the new section: For this section, you will be given either a picture or a set of keywords as a clue. Pick the option that is most closely associated with the clue.

Finals
- For the finals, I may change the platform from an IRC to a Skype call + Typing on Skype (please provide feedback on this)
-> The main reason why I may want to switch to using Skype + Skype call would be that it would allow members to give out commands such as “pass to …” etc. and would allow me to tell people “time’s out” (since I’m so slow at typing) somewhat more quickly.
-> It would also be easier to deal with disputes over certain rulings, allowing the finals to proceed more smoothly.
-> Another reason would be that having a Skype call would definitely make the finals feel less ‘dead’ than typing things out.
-> Moreover, if Skype is used, I would be able to make use of the screen sharing function (that I recently discovered (yea I’m slow)) for certain games.
-> That said, there are limitations with using Skype. The main issue would be that members may be too shy to want to have their voice heard on Skype. (If I was asked to have a Skype call with other members in this guild a year ago, I would probably have avoided doing so at all cost. As such, I’m think here may be qualifiers who may choose not to take part in the finals should a Skype call be required.) Perhaps this topic could be brought up in the survey.
-> Another issue would be potential technical issues, which would probably arise from using Skype since it sucks quite bad. Switching to another similar platform may solve this though

-> I am also considering changing some of the games to allow the finals to flow more smoothly and increase interaction. I’ll update later on as I dream up ideas.
-> In general, I would probably scale up the difficulty of the questions and make it such that questions would assess trivia knowledge more so than database searching skills.

-> I would probably host a trial version of the finals with volunteers (using a different set of questions) to ensure the finals are more organised and run more smoothly.

-> I am also considering allowing some volunteers who did not qualify for the finals to contribute questions which would be asked in the finals to make the event less exclusive.

Rewards
- Reworking the reward system. Going to make some changes to the reward system.
- Tiered system for designs remains (e.g. Kouhai, Senpai, Sensei etc.)
- Level system to replace star system (visual). - a level will be reflected on the badge based on how well an individual performed in the qualifying round. This replaces the stars which are currently reflected on badges. (mainly making this change as I don’t want the badges to be flooded with stars.)
- As for how many badges an individual would be able to claim, this would still be dependent on their score in the qualifying round, but I would be providing a different chart for it.

*I am able to host this if it is deemed a good idea, unless something big comes up, in which case I may need someone to help out a bit.

4. Anime Guild magazine for 2016-2017.
Another experimental project that I have in mind would be to make an Anime Guild digital magazine that could be attached to the first newsletter of 2017. As far as I know, other clubs haven’t attempted this yet, so I’m not sure how the reception would be. (we could add a short poll at the top of the newsletter thread to gather feedback on this magazine) if you guys think it's a good idea. The magazine link could also possibly be put on the club's home page to serve as a 'brochure'.

Purpose:
- Commemorate the year that has gone by.
- Serves as a more comprehensive newsletter
- Try something different and unique
- A more attractive/unique way to present our events compared to a wall of text.

Details:
* It’s still a long time till the start of 2017 and I’m not sure if I would have the necessary time resources to carry it through competition yet, but here are some ideas for the magazine:
- Pdf file/extended forum post that covers the events in AG and major happenings in anime for the year 2016 and some things to look out for in 2017.

Possible Contents
- Recap of PRC + AOTS + COTS + OPOTS/EDOTS rankings. (2-3 pages)
- A section in which there is 1 anime recommendation from each officer (1 page)
- Featured reviews of 2016 anime that can be gleaned from the review events/written by interested contributors. (2-4 pages)
- Short Interviews with 3 elected members* (more explained later) (1-2 pages)
- Some trivia questions/an anime-themed crossword puzzle to keep the magazine interactive (2 pages + some scattered around)
- Some highlights of major events/news from 2016 (2 pages)
- Some events/activities to look out for in 2017. (1-1.5 pages)
- Some anime to look out for in 2017 and member views on them. (0.5-1 page)
- Results of the Anime Trivia Challenge + Interview with the winner. (1-2 pages)

*I am able to host part of this if it is deemed a good idea, but I will definitely need help from other volunteers.

*5. Members of the Year (End of 2016/Early 2017)
I got this idea in part from the MAL interview club and think that it may be a nice way to go around recognising active members outside of making them officers. Basically, a few members would be selected as our guild's members of the year and they would be interviewed.

Purpose:
- Recognise active members for their contributions to the guild.

Details:
- The staff of AG would nominate members who have actively participated in the club in 2016.
- 3 members (subject to change) will then be chosen from the elected and they will be given an interview.
- Even if the magazine idea doesn’t go through this could be presented in the form of a thread.
- While I feel that there should definitely be spots reserved for non-officers, it is possible for some spots to be assigned to officers.

*I may be able to host this if it is deemed a good idea. May need some volunteers though.

6. Some form of event to encourage interaction between different members.
Currently, I realise that the majority of the members that have been invited haven’t really been interacting much with our community. Most would at most post in the introductions thread, maybe contribute a vote to the song competitions and then vanish. As such, I would like to see some project taken to tackle this issue.

Purpose:
- Increase members' sense of belonging to the guild and help new members to get immersed into the community
- Increase interaction with members and between members

Ideas:
- At the moment, I’m not very sure how to go about doing this and I hope someone could provide better ideas or take up the project should they think it would be beneficial to the guild.
- One idea I do have would be to create a seasonal activity in which guild members may sign up and be assigned into groups of 4-5 members, with one active staff member in each group.
- Members in those groups could then be encouraged to interact with each other over the season, getting to know one another better before being reshuffled into another group of members the next season.
- I can foresee some issues with this idea though.

*I am not confident that I will have the time to host this long-term. I may be able to work with someone else for brainstorming, but ideally, I hope someone else would take this up if it is deemed a good idea.